Everybody Loves Raymond?

I was a "Raymond" late bloomer. I have never watched an episod in it's normal timeslot. I caught them all on syndication. My parents love "Raymond". They kept telling me about this funny show, but I'm a TV snob and adding another program to my 'must see' list was not on the agenda. Other than American Idol there isn't a television show on my 'must see' list. That doesn't mean I do not watch an odd episode of House (aren't they all odd?) or get interested in a re-run of Judging Amy. I just don't have the habit. Thanks to awful writing and a terrible story line I was able to overcome my Days of Our Lives addiction without much pain. That addiction goes back to college days. But back to Raymond ... I watched an episode with my parents. I was unimpressed. I think I was just naturally cynical and didn't want to like it, so it was easy to dismiss it. My brother doesn't like the show ... he thinks they are too mean to each other. I forgot to mention that I did see every episode of The Nanny - also in syndication, not in prime time. (I hate her new show!) I was up for months watching back-to-back episodes of Fran Drescher from 11-12 each night. But after seeing all of them, some of them multiple times, I stopped doing that. Raymond comes on from 10-11, back-to-back. Some months ago I watched a few episodes and found myself laughing out loud. So I watched a few more... and now I think it is safe to say that I have seen most of them. According to comments left on the last post, most of my readers do not love Raymond. I liked this writeup about Everybody Loves Raymond. Anyhow, I'm not out to convert you who do not love Raymond. You be as snobby as you like when it comes to Television, just come back and read my blog every day. I'm not asking much! After 210 episodes, Everybody says goodbye to Raymond. They are leaving while at the top of their game. Better to do that than to fade into irrelevance, I guess. I'll leave it to the sociologists, pundits, and reviewers to discuss why Raymond connected with America in such a big way. I liked it because Raymond does dumb things. I do dumb things. Raymond messes up things while trying to fix them. Ditto. Raymond wants to make people happy and not be confrontational. Yeah. Raymond never tucks his shirt in. My hero. That I remember, Raymond never preached at me, he never tried to decide important social issues for me, he never wagged his finger at me for being a conservative or a liberal, and he never tried to make up the minds of his viewers for them. My big problem with shows like ER, Law and Order, and Judging Amy and most other dramatic shows is that their major theme of the day is to prove that moral relativism is alive and well, and that any way that seems to be right or wrong is actually both right and wrong. We wonder where postmodernism came from? We were taught it by boxes that project images in several rooms in our homes 24 hours a day 7 days a week. So, I liked Raymond because I didn't have to readjust my world view just to have a simple laugh. Raymond is already flying high in syndication heaven ... along with Lucy, Beaver, Gilligan, Sanford, and Archie. It is his rightful place.